WATCH: Fundamental Attribution Error

Today, I’d like to talk about the ‘Fundamental Attribution Error’. It’s one of the cognitive biases that can get in the way and often cause a lot of problems in the workplace. A lot of dissatisfaction and conflicts with teams actually.

Interpret Our Own Behaviour

Differently than the way that we interpret the behaviour of others’. So, for example, if I’m driving and I’m driving and I’m in a rush because I’ve got an important client meeting. And, I’m really late for it, there was some traffic jam further down the line and I’m now zipping along on the motorway. And, then suddenly the car in front of me breaks for an unknown reason and I need to swerve into the middle lane. And, before I know it I’m swerving in front of someone else, they’re beeping at me and I’m going like “Oh, that wasn’t so good but everything’s safe, no problem and off we go”.

Now, I don’t think badly of myself and that. I’m just going like there were a whole bunch of factors there, I’m in a rush and then there’s this traffic Situation. But the people that were beeping at me were probably going like “That guy’s an idiot, he’s a bad person, he’s a bad driver, he only thinks for himself, he’s not thinking of others, careless!” And, all bunch of other names, right? So, we tend to think and justify our own behaviour because we understand the decision-making process.

The external factors that are impinging on us. And, why we are doing what we’re doing and we see ourselves as fundamentally still a good person. But if we see the behaviour of others and that is missing.

Missing The Intent And Missing The External Factors

We’ll jump to the conclusion that that’s impinged badly on us and therefore they’re a bad person. And, we make loads of judgments about it. So, think very carefully about how this could be happening in the workplace. When you’ve got to make a difficult decision and you’ve had lots of time to think about it and you’ve spoken to lots of different people. And, then you make this decision and yet you know it’s going to be disruptive for some people, other teams or other staff, if you don’t clearly articulate your intent. And if you don’t clearly articulate all the external factors that were impacting on your decision.

Fundamental Attribution Error

This happens a lot between teams as well, where one team will see the actions of another team and thinks, “They just think for themselves!”, “They’re not doing anything right and blah blah blah”. They’ll get a whole bunch of stuff and it becomes personal. Once it becomes personal people get emotional and people can’t be emotional and rational at the same time. So it can get spiral out of control really quickly.

So, think about how the ‘Fundamental Attribution Error’ may be impacting in your workplace.

Thank you!

With best regards,

David Klaasen

Talent4Performance help business leaders clarify complexity. We inspire people and drive continuous performance improvement, so they can convert thinking into action and results.

©David Klaasen – 2023